Thursday, August 23, 2007

It's funny how we spend time with people and still don't know hundreds of things about them. Or we think we know something, but we don't (This is not a philosophical post, I promise).

I was going through a couple of books trying to choose something for lunch and suddenly João looked at a photo and said "why don't you cook this?" - I looked at him and replied "but you don't like cannelloni. And you don't like ricotta either". "Of course I like cannelloni. And I would definitely try your ricotta cannelloni - but don't add spinach, please"

After my jaw was back where it belongs, João was off to the grocery store to buy the ingredients and I was glad to know he's more open to trying new food. :)

I'm submitting this post for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Scott, from Real Epicurean.

I adapted a recipe from this book and used a combination of parsley, chives and basil to replace the spinach.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF.
To make the filling, combine the ricotta, olive oil, parsley, basil, chives, parmesan, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.
Spread 1/3 of the tomato sauce over the base of a greased 20x30cm (8x12in) ovenproof dish.
Lay a lasagna sheet on a flat surface, spoon on some ricotta filling and roll up. Place in the baking dish, seam-side down. Repeat with the remaining filling and sheets.
Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the cannelloni, sprinkle with the extra parmesan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until heated through.

* I added the olive oil because the ricotta I used was too crumbly – it helped create a creamier filling

Although I do like spinach, replacing it with the herbs sounds like a lovely version of cannelloni! I know exactly what you mean...I thought I would fall of my chair the first time my husband ate a non-tomato based pasta that I cooked and liked it :)

Patricia, what a great idea to use the herbs. We have basil, oregano and parsley growing in our yard than now know their purpose in life...being in your cannelloni recipe. I like spinach, but your idea is WAY more interesting than soggy spinach. All of the cannelloni in the dish, is a definite Tastespotting worthy submission. I've never heard of using lasagne noodles like that before, but now I must try it. Thanks for the post!

Yum! Excellent idea replacing the spinach with all those herbs. They look really pretty all laying in your baking dish. I made cannelloni once (or perhaps it was some other pasta shape since my tubes were a lot smaller than yours) and found it a bit frustrating to try and filling the tubes of pasta without them splitting down the side! They were tasty though.

I would have been skeptical about dropping the spinach, but your substitutions look fabulous! This combination looks like it would create a more subtle blend of flavors than if you had used the spinach.

They look absolutely delicious, Patricia...and I love that João decided that he wanted you to make them, and then even went to the grocery store to pick up all the ingredients...excellent! Grocery shopping is the only negative part about the whole cooking process, well maybe that and the cleaning up part, so its nice that he pitched in with the groundwork! :-)

I would have put in spinach as I love it. For a second there, when I saw the first photo, I thought you ignored his request and added spinach anyway ;-) then I saw that it was the herbs! That looks really lovely!

Nora, my dear, he liked it a lot and told me I can repeat this recipe anytime I want. I don't know why he doesn't like spinach - there are a lot of things he didn't like as a single guy and started liking after we gor married. Fish is one of them. I have hope. ;)

Toni, I'm so glad you liked it, sweetie!

Susan, nothing left, my dear friend. Only dishes to clean. :)

Belinda, thank you! You are right - sometimes the places are so crowded I just want to pick the very necessary items and go home in a second.He always helps me with stuff, I feel very blessed.

Syrie, let me know how you like it, please? I'd love to get your opinion about it.

Everything 4 Sweets, it's a great way of using the pasta sheets!

Truffle, we ate a lot here, too. :S

Wok and Spoon, I love it too and hope I can make it with it in the future. There was a lot of green there, right? :)

Ricotta is my favorite white cheese. I used to add it only for making mouses or cheese cakes. Recently learned to make pancakes with ricotta and today, Thanks a lot for sharing then idea, I've learned to make Cannelloni with ricotta.

Hallo from Germany. This recipe sounded so delicious to me, that I made it to my 25th birthday last week. I just used oregano instead of the chives. And it turned out really yammi. I loved it. Looks like I'm having a new favourite recipe.

I'm a bit late here but I made this recipe about a week ago with a few tiny adjustments (didn't include breadcrumbs; no fresh herbs on hand, subbed dry) and my supremely picky SO absolutely loved this dish! He doesn't even like italian food most of the time.